How to Fix Women’s Basketball

I have a solution to fix women’s basketball. Make it different from men’s basketball. The rules for basketball were created by men. Men adapted the rules over the years because of the changes in the athletes as workout routines improved. The rules that are currently set in place are the same ones that men are constantly tweaking to improve the game. Why are women using the same rules as men?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at time of writing, the average height of males is 5’ 9.3”, while the average height of females is 5’ 3.8” That is a difference of 5.5” in height between males and females. Basketball uses a rim that is ten feet off of the floor for both men and women. Why? The rim should be lowered for women basketball teams because it would make the sport more exciting.

The problem with women’s basketball is that no one cares. Look up attendance figures and you will see that the stadiums are mostly empty for games. There is no difference in attendance between women’s amateur and professional leagues either. There is just not a market for women’s basketball.

I say lower the rim to eight feet high. I know this is a drastic difference from where it is now, but the women’s game should be different than the men’s game. Some coaches are already advocates for lowering the rims. By lowering the rims you will have more dunks. That is what makes the game exciting. The NBA has a whole All-Star event dedicated to dunking. Lower the rim to add dunking to the women’s game. This is not a slight at women. I love women. They just aren’t as tall as men so there are fewer of them that can dunk.

I am a fan of getting rid of goaltending in women’s basketball. This would allow for more physical play. Let women scrap it out down low. Blocking shots. Dunking over each other. These are things I want to see when I watch women’s basketball. This would open up recruiting and encourage shorter women to try the sport.

The counter-argument would be that there are no facilities in place that allow for rims to be lowered. High schools all around the country already have separate facilities for women’s softball. So basketball would not be the only sport that has separate equipment for women. The lowering of rims could be done by crank or machine and a lot of elementary schools already have a system in place. It would not take long for a universal system to be put in place to lower rims. I say that we push for change to put women’s basketball front and center in the sporting world.